our WORK

New Columbia features 80+ acres of new infrastructure, comprehensive park system, office and commercial space, elementary school and rental and for-sale units for a mixed-income community. There are 127 one-, two-, and three-story, wood frame buildings totaling 648,138 SF, with 620 rental units, 230 home ownership units, a 60,000 SF school and 23,000 SF of commercial space. Scope included demolition of over 225 units.

New Columbia

Size

The New Columbia project totaled over $100 million worth of work completed in two phases. There are 127 one-, two-, and three-story, wood frame buildings, totaling 648,138 SF, with 560 rental units as well as 23,000 SF of commercial space. Also included were 82 acres of infrastructure, a comprehensive park system, and the demolition of over 225 units.

“CEC Security Services worked with Walsh on the New Columbia project from June 2004 through June 2005. Walsh was very instrumental in the stability of CEC Services as a result of this particular project. We have even expanded into working with Walsh on another construction site as well.
Being a small minority-owned business, Walsh worked with us very closely for the year that we were involved with the project.
As a result of working with Walsh, we were able to keep employees on our staff who may have been otherwise out of work.”
- Charles E. Cason President CEC Services, Inc.

“As a resident of the Portsmouth neighborhood, where New Columbia is located, I was initially quite skeptical about the impact such a large construction project would have for our residents and neighborhood. Walsh Construction worked closely with the Neighbors Task Force to listen to our concerns, prepare responses, solve any problems that arose, and outreach to local residents to prepare them for the different aspects of the construction. I was not surprised when Walsh was presented with a “Spirit of Portsmouth” Award for being a good neighbor during the building of New Columbia. The New Columbia project has transformed our neighborhood, and Walsh should be quite proud of its contribution to that transformation.” - Lisa Horne Resident

We have had significant success providing excellent and collaborative preconstruction services as exemplified by our New Columbia project. Conceived in three phases, the WALSH team carefully planned out this 82-acre site from demolition through an entirely new infrastructure and then built 850 units of housing and 25,000 SF of office/retail. WALSH saved the owner time and money by changing the grading plan in the NE corner, eliminating 35,000 yards of soil export, raising sanitary sewer trunklines 10 feet and grinding asphalt roadways into structural fill. The project team’s careful planning and flawless execution led to the return of $1.6m to Home Forward for future project upgrades. The initial phase turned over six weeks early, Phase 2 and 3 turnovers were staged block by block and happened like clockwork over the next 18 months. The project team hit every milestone on a schedule planned out two years earlier.

Tremendous community outreach reaped phenomenal rewards, as Walsh and our subcontractors and suppliers maintained record MWESB participation: The Housing Authority of Portland (Home Forward) set a goal of 20%, while 24% was achieved. In addition, 20% apprenticeship hours (target 20%) was achieved, and 45% of the on-site labor hours by subcontractors subject to Workforce Training and Hiring requirements were completed by minorities and women.